Merge Clips Question

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Level 1

7 points

Merge Clips Question

Have read the manual and searched the forums but can't work this out.

Basically I'm syncing double system audio and creating merged clips. As the video is HDV all the shots are already seperate clips. However the audio files are 1 hour long clips (transfered from DAT). Now, using the timeline technique to merge the clips, I cut out only the audio I need for each shot and merge it with the video. However the resulting clips contain ALL 1 hour of the audio (with in and out points around the video, that is most video shots are about 30 sec). This doesn't work for me since I want only the length of the shot on the playback bar of the preview window to be as long as only that shot is, for easy navigation in the shot. Even if I cut and delete the extra audio on the timeline, it still gives me all 1 hour of audio on the merged clip... how can I delete this unwanted audio on each clip? Not sure if I'm explaining this clearly. I have 43 hours and potentially thousands of shots, so individually exporting each and every merged clip as it's own shot is not at all doable from a time and hard drive space perspective. Thanks!

Mac Pro 2 x 2.8ghz, Mac OS X (10.5.5), FCP 6.0.5

Posted on Dec 8, 2008 11:45 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Andy Neil

Level 4

3,795 points

Dec 8, 2008 12:08 PM in response to klaply

This is a shortcoming of FCPs Merge Clips function. When you merge clips, you'll always get the entire length of the video and audio media regardless of how short you make it in the timeline.

My suggestion for you would be to export and re-import the AUDIO in smaller chunks like 5 minutes or 1 minute, or as long as the longest video clip you need to sync. It'll take some time, but not nearly as long as trying to export and import each merged clip.

You'll still have excess audio in your merged clips, but it'll be far more managable to work with.

Andy

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Answer 2

klaply Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 8, 2008 12:16 PM in response to Andy Neil

Thanks so much Andy for the quick reply. I was afraid of this, that it would be a shortcoming of FCP. It is rather suprising as this seems to be the most common set-up for working with double-system sound, this is really a HUGE hassle for a project this size (feature length film with 43 hours of raw footage to be synced). It's quite annoying and seems like such a no-brainer to fix. Oh well. I'll consider your work-around, thanks for the idea and for the help!

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Answer 3

Andy Neil

Level 4

3,795 points

Dec 8, 2008 1:11 PM in response to klaply

Ok. I've found an odd work around that you may want to try.

Make sure linking is on in your timeline. Sync audio to video. Link the audio to the video. Instead of merging, double-click to load the linked clip into the viewer.

Create a sub-clip (CMD+U). Drag the sub clip into the sequence. The audio and video will be the correct length, but the audio will not be in sync (it'll be offset, don't ask me why). Unlink the subclip (CMD+L). Using snapping, drag the video clip so that it's correctly atop the audio clip. Relink (CMD+L). Drag the new clip into your browser to create the merged clip.

The merged clip will no longer reference the entire audio media. You can delete the subclip from your browser when you're done.

It's a weird work around but it works and doesn't require any exporting or re-importing which will make it MUCH faster to get what you want.

Andy

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Answer 4

klaply Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 8, 2008 1:43 PM in response to Andy Neil

Dude! Thanks. This is much better than the other export alternative. At the end I end up with actually a subclip (has a subclip icon), I assume this is correct. Thanks again Andy!

Just to vent: still this is a ridiculous amount of work for something so simple. Am I the first person to have noticed this or have a problem with it? Do people somehow always break down their audio clips into seperate clips before? Apple: this really needs to be fixed ASAP.

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Answer 5

Andy Neil

Level 4

3,795 points

Dec 8, 2008 2:08 PM in response to klaply

Ending up with a subclip is correct. Actually, I think that's the only thing broken with the Merge Clip function. There are times when it's preferable to have the entire media connected to the clip than just a small portion. But I agree that if you go through the trouble of syncing in a timeline, then it should only reference the media in the timeline.

Sub-clipping a merged clip appears to be broken because it throws the audio off-sync from the video. Apple should certainly look into fixing that.

Andy

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Answer 6

klaply Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 8, 2008 2:19 PM in response to Andy Neil

I just wonder if perhaps I'm doing this a wrong way, because my situation seems like it would be so common to everyone working in double system with no timecode on a DAT (that is lots of little clips in video and several long clips of sound that need to be broken down and merged), and I don't see any other posts or anything about this issue, so perhaps everyone else is working in another (faster/better) way. I guess a good solution for Apple might be a "merge entire media" and a "merge selected media" option or something like this, to take care of this issue. Thanks again for the help!

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Answer 7

Andy Neil

Level 4

3,795 points

Dec 9, 2008 9:22 AM in response to klaply

I asked around and I found the solution. The audio and video tracks have to have the same reel name. Then you link them together, open it in the viewer and create a subclip (CMD+U). The subclip will only show the audio and video between from the trimmed clip in the sequence.

If the audio and video clips don't have the same reel name, then you have to go through that additional step of realigning the video to the audio in the timeline, and relinking.

I did a test this morning, and it worked perfectly. See if that helps you.

Andy

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Answer 8

klaply Author

Level 1

7 points

Dec 10, 2008 2:46 AM in response to Andy Neil

Hi Andy, thanks again. I tried it (made sure the reel names were the same for both audio and video) and it does indeed create a subclip of only the portion that was in the timeline, but the audio and video are still misaligned, out of sync. Have tried with multiple clips and still the same result.

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